<\/p>\n
The UK government has dropped its plans to produce a non-fungible token for sale through the Royal Mint, just under a year after it first announced the project.<\/p>\n
In response to a question from the Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin, the Treasury\u2019s economic secretary, Andrew Griffith, confirmed the abandonment, saying: \u201cIn consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a non-fungible token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tulip Siddiq, the shadow City minister, welcomed the decision. \u201cI\u2019m glad that the Royal Mint has finally made the Conservatives see sense, but we\u2019ve been calling on the chancellor to drop this crypto gimmick for months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis out-of-touch government should be focused on the cost of living crisis, not wasting time and taxpayers\u2019 money on an NFT vanity project and promoting dodgy stablecoins.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 2022, the Treasury had asked the Mint<\/a> to create the token. At the time, it said it \u201cshows the forward-looking approach we are determined to take towards crypto assets in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n There is little to show for almost 12 months of work. The Mint did not produce a visualisation of what the proposed non-fungible token would look like, or any technical explanation of how it would work, what it would offer users, and what blockchain infrastructure it would be built on.<\/p>\n The announcement of an NFT, from the then chancellor, Rishi Sunak, came just weeks before the bubble popped, and within a month, the Treasury was having to defend its plans<\/a> in the face of a collapse in value of all cryptocurrencies after the failure of the Terra\/UST \u201calgorithmic stablecoin\u201d.<\/p>\n Since then, a slow-motion crisis has embroiled the sector, with FTX, Celsius, Voyager and Genesis filing for bankruptcy alongside crypto-focused banks Silvergate and Signature and Binance, the leading crypto exchange, facing an investigation from US regulators.<\/p>\n